A "very, very disappointed" Rod Dixon isn't surprised New Zealand has had a case of doping in high performance sport, saying he and others have warned Kiwi officials for years that more needed to be done.
Dixon - who won bronze at the 1972 Olympics in the men's 1500 metres - spoke to 1News this afternoon in light of two-time Olympian Zane Robertson being banned from sport for eight years for doping and falsely claiming he was getting a Covid-19 vaccine.
Robertson tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) and provided false documentation in his defence after he was tested at the UK's Great Manchester Run in May 2022.
The New York Marathon winner said the news was an unfortunate inevitability.
"This has come about after years and years of warnings from athletes like myself," Dixon told 1News.
"They [Athletics NZ] have been repeatedly told to be careful, to be more aware of what your athletes are doing.
"Anybody involved in a high performance level is accountable for what has happened.
"This is only one instance - it's out there, it's been happening under the radar for so long."
However, Athletics New Zealand's Pete Pfitzinger told 1News: "I have checked with our high performance staff and we have not received a warning from Rod Dixon or others. It is hurtful that one of our champion athletes from the past would make these unfounded allegations."
He added: "We do take pride in all New Zealand sport being clean. We take pride in Drug Free Sport NZ being one of the top anti-doping organisations in the world, and in our own sport being clean. We last had a situation like this in 2009. We don't want anyone to be doping we don't want anyone to taint our very clean image."
But Dixon said New Zealand's sporting image will now be in question.
"[New Zealand runners] are going to be questioned, they're going to be looked at even more so - I've already been on the phone most of the afternoon talking to promotors and race directors and they said that it's something they have to look at now whenever they ever invite any athletes from New Zealand again because one athlete is good enough to tarnish the rest of them," he said.
"The media who associate themselves with events, the first thing they will question will be, 'why are you bringing in someone from New Zealand who is coming from country where there is a banned athlete for eight years for EPO?'
"You've got to question that."
Drug Free Sport NZ's Nick Peterson, speaking before Dixon made his comments, said: "I'd ask other sporting codes to mirror some of the actions taken by Athletics NZ in both the training education support for other athletes and then also the wellbeing support."
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